Eugene-KEED-1970-1972-The Big Names

I've been mentioning a lot of familiar names of people and songs in my posts about my Eugene experiences from 1970-1972. But it is time to now get to some of the very biggest names to finish things off.
John Lennon: At this point in time, I don't think I would have had any understanding of the John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band album that came out around the time I was still in California and then moved up to Eugene. It was going to take for me to be an adult to fully understand why this album may well be the single most soul-baring album that an artist has ever made. So, when I was listening to the radio, I very seriously doubt that I heard "God" or even a censored version of "Working Class Hero".
What I did get exposed to was "Power To The People", "Instant Karma" and "Imagine". If I were to point to any one person who instilled a sense of militancy of belief and urgency of conviction in me at a young age, John Lennon would very likely be the one I would say was responsible. John made it real. It wasn't just the whole hippie thing. As a kid, I can recall seeing John in short hair for the (I believe) video for "Instant Karma". I loved the music, but John also was scaring me a bit simply because of how he looked. The short hair had me fooled. John was instilling in me through my immature subconcious mind that the idea is more important than the visual appearance even though the irony is that John and Yoko were visual peformance artists along with musical at this point in time.
What can I say about "Imagine" and how it took hold of people back then? "Imagine" became the template of philosophy by which I could strive for even though I would inevitably (and continue to) fall short of. John would fall short too. This is what makes the song all that much more beautiful. We've got to keep aiming higher just so that we don't get to a point where we despise ourselves.
I never took the line "imagine there's no Heaven" as being that you should not believe there is one. I've always taken it as being that you should never buy into what someone says is Heaven because Heaven will be what is yours when your time comes. And besides, we are nowhere near to creating a Heaven here on Earth yet.
Rather than being anti-God as some people over the years have suggested, I've always thought that John Lennon life and his music/philosophy was a gift from God because he gave us another way of looking at things. John Lennon was the militant friend or brother you loved to death for having the balls to say what he did.
Ringo Starr: There were two songs of Ringo's from the '70-'72 period that were monumental as well. "It Don't Come Easy" and "Back Off Boogaloo". Both of the songs were influenced by Ringo's reacting to the period of living among the ruins of the post-Beatles breakup. George Harrison helped him to complete "It Don't Come Easy". Ringo came up with the line that I still echo to myself repeatedly as I get older. "I don't ask for much/I only want trust/and you know it don't come easy". People, you don't know how much that line means to me now and how it has shaped my feelings about issues that I have which directly affects my life.
Paul McCartney: And then there's Paul. Oh God! This period of time in Paul's solo career has been so sadly maligned by people over the years-but especially right then. I don't know how the hell Paul managed to maintain his sanity. Plus, Ringo, George and John were occasionally taking to taking shots at Paul in the press and in their music. "Back Off Boogaloo" was a shot by Ringo at Paul for instance.
During the time I lived on Fir Acres, I bought and owned the Ram album and the Wildlife album. I was exposed to "Give Ireland Back To The Irish" and "Just Another Day" on the radio. I only occasionally heard "Maybe I'm Amazed". By the time I moved up to Eugene in '70, "Maybe I'm Amazed" had fallen off the singles chart.
It was the Ram album which really drove home the idea to me that I thought the ideal couple was Paul and Linda. A hope began that I could meet a Linda as a result of listening to the Ram album. I can still see myself standing out in my driveway on Fir Acres one cold January or February day in 1972 and looking up at the sky as the clouds were playing games with the sun and the blue sky while I had "Too Many People" going on in my mind. Paul was in a completely different mindset than John was in. His whole thing was to just create a life away from chaos through domesticity and music. He had messages, but he wasn't militant. He was just Paul giving you an opinion that you could take or leave with ease because he wasn't backing you up against a wall. Did his anger come out sometimes? Yes. All you had to do was listen to "Smile Away". That was his answer to John as well as "Too Many People".
My Dad absolutely loved the "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey" single. He loved to listen to it whenever we were driving around. I remember his listening to it on a number of occasions. It was back then that my Dad used to proliferate his own opinion that Paul was the most talented of The Beatles. I never bought into it because I loved all four of them equally. In this regard, I was protected from falling into that trap. I hope Dad knows this now.